updated 06:05 am EDT, Thu March 15, 2012

Mozilla lists all Firefox enhancements for 2012

Mozilla has detailed its 2012 Firefox roadmap. As with 2011, Mozilla plans on maintaining a rapid update schedule. Users can expect updates coming frequently so that features and fixes are rolled out quickly. However, instead of causing users to experience 'update fatigue' with the rapid update cycle, updates will happen 'silently,' downloading and installing in the background.

Over the course of 2011, Mozilla said that it made 10, 881 enhancements/changes to Firefox and added 83 new features and 135 new APIs. The foundation also said that users installed 480,000,000 add-ons to enhance their browsing experience, but some users experienced issues with add-on compatibility after updates to Firefox. To this end, in 2012 Mozilla says that from Firefox 10 onwards, all add-ons marked compatible for Firefox 4 and higher will be automatically enabled.

Additional plans for Firefox in 2012 include Chrome migration, refreshed media controls, add-ons sync and Firefox hotfixes all due in Q1. Q2 will see a proof of concept for Firefox in Windows 8 Metro, home tab additions, web apps marketplace integration, restore Firefox function, smooth scrolling and session restore. The second half of 2012 will also see Firefox going social with Firefox Share, an integrated translation service, search hijack prevention as well as a Safari-like reader mode among other enhancements.

Jeronimo

usual complaints

Whining over version numbers. So, would you be happier if they just called each update 5.1, 5.2, 5.3, instead of 8, 9, 10? Just because it doesn't fit with your definition of what a major update is? And I'm sure you haven't bothered updating OS X since it came out, since Apple is just rolling out some minor updates (like 10.7, Lion, barely distinguishable from 10.6 I'm sure, since it's barely another dot update).

And really, why do you care if the call it Firefox 11 or Firefox 10.1? Either way it would be the same blasted thing!

Oh, and you're all also the same people who mock Microsoft for spending 3 years on a release, and cutting features so they can get stuff out the door.